


What a shame we've got to pay for reality

by art3mismh



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Day At The Beach, Eventual Romance, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff, Gay, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Idiots in Love, Kissing, M/M, No Smut, Oblivious GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Roommates, Simp Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), The Author Regrets Everything, Third Wheel Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Truth or Dare, dream is a simp, dream team, gogy's birthday
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:48:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29468226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/art3mismh/pseuds/art3mismh
Summary: After moving to live in America, George immediately realises that he's screwed. Plagued by a long-time crush on someone he is certain doesn't like him back, he must try to settle in a new country whilst also trying to suppress his feelings for his best friend.ORThe Dream Team are all roommates, and Sapnap is once again the third-wheel to his two friends who just won't admit that they're in love with each other.*title is from the song 'I love you, will you marry me' by Yungblud
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18
Collections: MCYT





	What a shame we've got to pay for reality

**Author's Note:**

> hey everyone, welcome!  
> this fic will probably have around 5-6 chapters, and i'll try to update it around once a week. i honestly don't really like any part of this chapter apart from the start, but i'd already written 3k words by the time i realised i hated it, and it was kinda too late to rewrite it. it may be a slow start, but i promise there will be more fluff and romance soon (as well as some characters other than the dream team!)
> 
> if any of the cc's state that they are uncomfortable with shipping/fanfiction, i won't hesitate to delete this :)
> 
> enjoy!

The waves lapped playfully at George’s feet - cold, but not cold enough for him to retreat back up the beach. After all, why would he want to go anywhere when he was sitting beside the most beautiful man in the world? 

The sunset (even though his eyes could not distinguish all of the colours properly) was stunning, however George wasn’t paying any attention to it. Instead, he let himself gaze at the man sitting next to him on the warm sand. He couldn’t remember when - or even how exactly - he had gotten there, but George certainly wasn’t complaining. His eyes roamed over his best friend’s face, noticing the smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks, and the way in which that singular curl of his wavy blonde hair fell just ever so slightly into his eyes. Those gorgeous jade eyes, that were currently fixated intently on the setting sun, reflecting the last golden rays of light that were peeking over the horizon. 

George had long ago accepted the fact that what he felt for Dream was far more than just friendship. He had also come to terms with the fact that these feelings were completely one-sided, and there was no way in hell that Dream felt anything in return. 

There were moments where George imagined that maybe, just maybe, his best friend felt the same way he did: the relentless teasing and coy comments; flirty jokes on stream that felt too real to be fake; late nights spent together in discord calls; and more recently, words exchanged face to face, where it was no longer possible for either of them to hide their blush behind a computer screen.

After months of hassle and paperwork, George had finally managed to move in with the rest of the Dream Team, leaving behind his life in Britain to start anew with his friends in America. So far he had no regrets, aside from maybe the fact that he hadn’t gathered enough courage to ask out a particular Floridian Youtuber, that he may or may not have been crushing on for several months now. 

George was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice that the other man was now returning his gaze, and only snapped out of his daydream when he heard a soft voice utter his name.

“George?”

“Hm?” The Brit said quickly, averting his eyes in a futile attempt to conceal the fact that he had indeed been staring at Dream for far longer than was considered normal. A flush crept across George’s face, having been caught in the act, but Dream didn’t seem to mind that his best friend had been admiring him. Instead, he smirked slightly, and returned his stare.

“What’s on your mind?” Dream murmured, shifting closer to George so that their legs were now touching. 

George’s breath caught in his throat. Their faces were so close now, it would be so easy for him to lean in and-

“Oh, uhm, not much” George replied breathily, “I was just thinking about…”

‘ _ About how beautiful you look. And how much I want to kiss you right now’ _ , but those words remained as thoughts, George’s lips unable to form the words that he so badly wanted to say.

Dream’s eyes glittered, as if he knew what his best friend was thinking, and his gaze shifted down to the other’s lips. 

George inhaled deeply -  _ this couldn’t be real, there is no way that this is even happening right now  _ \- and moved forwards to close the miniscule gap between their faces.

And that was when he woke up to a pillow being slammed into the side of his face by none other than Dream himself.

* * *

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE!” Sapnap shrieked, as Dream doubled over, wheezing at the look on George’s face, which was somewhere between confusion, shock and disappointment. 

George looked up sleepily at his friends, still trying to adjust to the waking world. He was trying his best not to let it show how frustrated he was that they had to wake him at  _ that  _ moment, especially seeing as he had woken to a pillow being thrown at his head, but it was difficult to keep secrets from the two people that knew you better than you knew yourself. 

“George?” Dream said, sounding genuinely concerned. “Are you ok? I swear I didn’t mean to throw the pillow that hard, okay, well, maybe I did but-”

“No, ‘s fine, just… tired” George mumbled into the pillow, trying not to look Dream in the eyes. He could remember every second of the dream that he had just been unceremoniously dragged out of, and he had no intention of telling Dream anything. Least of all the part where they almost kissed.

When he first moved to Florida, he thought that finally getting to see Dream in person might give him closure, and help him get over this ‘stupid crush’, but he didn’t realise how wrong he was. Seeing Dream face to face was… overwhelming, to say the least. 

For one, he could now experience all of Dream’s little mannerisms and habits that were impossible to communicate solely by their discord calls - like the way his eyes crinkled when his laughter came out in that stupid, annoying, insanely cute, wheezing. 

And second, George hadn’t mentally prepared himself for Dream to be  _ this _ attractive. He’d be lying if he said that he hadn’t tried to picture what his best friend might look like, but not even his imagination could have created a guy that was just completely and utterly perfect - in George’s eyes anyway.

George reached out blindly, face still buried in his pillows, for his phone on his nightstand. But instead of his hand meeting the smooth wooden surface like he expected, it came to rest instead on someone else's, fingers intertwining unconsciously. 

He looked up, surprised, and was met with the sight of Dream smiling playfully, and quickly jerked his hand away. 

“Ah-ah, Georgie, me and Sapnap didn’t get up at 6am sorting out your birthday preparations for you to ignore us and spend the entire day scrolling through twitter.” Dream teased playfully, moving his hand away, along with George's phone.

When George merely gave him a disdainful look and turned his head on his pillow to face away from him, Dream groaned out loud at his friend's stubbornness. 

Sapnap stepped forward, hands clasped in front of him in mock pleading, "George, c'mon, if you won't get up for this idiot, at least do it for me. I was forced to leave  _ my  _ bed at an ungodly time this morning,  _ and _ ruin my sleep schedule for you, all because Dream's a massive simp-" 

Dream turned away from George - who was still adamantly lying on his bed - crossing his arms over his chest and scowling at Sapnap. 

"I am not a fucking simp!" Dream retorted defensively, "I just wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for George's birthday, that's all. Also, what do you even mean by 'ruin your sleep schedule', you never even had one to begin with!"

Sapnap snickered quietly at Dream's abysmal attempt at a comeback, and rolling his eyes and smirking as he said "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Dream."

George had been only half-listening to the argumentative interaction between his roommates, allowing instead for his eyes to wander lazily over Dream's figure. Even to his bleary, lidded eyes, his best friend's body was still stunning - and although George absolutely hated being woken up before 10:00am, he thought that he wouldn't mind it so much anymore if Dream was the first thing he got to see. 

These wistful thoughts were immediately silenced when Dream moved back towards George and knelt down beside the bed, making them both eye-level with one another. 

"Georgie, pleeeaaase, we just want to make your birthday special for you." Dream whined, looking into George's eyes pleadingly, lips pressed together in a pout. 

George sighed defeatedly - how was he supposed to resist that face? - and begrudgingly swung his legs over the side of the bed, resulting in cheers from both Dream and Sapnap. 

"Jeez, if I'd have known all I had to do to persuade you was make puppy-dog eyes at you, I'd have done it way sooner," Dream said, smirking.

"Shut up." George muttered embarrassedly, averting his eyes when a flush began to creep across his face. The last thing he needed was the other two getting another thing to tease him about. Especially seeing as it hadn’t even been a week since the last incident - when he accidentally walked in on Dream in the shower - although, thankfully, Sapnap didn’t seem to know about that particular mishap. 

Sapnap began to walk out of the room, and called over his shoulder, “Well we should probably let you get ready for today, we’ll be waiting for you in the sitting room, unless Dream is staying to watch.” 

Dream spluttered in protest, and his cheeks turned a vibrant shade of what George assumed to be red.  _ Cute _ .

“So, do you actually plan on watching me get changed, or…” George said, looking quizzically at Dream with raised eyebrows and a small smile.

“I- You- What??” Dream stuttered. “No, of course not, I-” He slowly backed out of the room, still blushing profusely, and was met by howls of laughter from Sapnap as he finally stumbled backwards out of the room.

George laughed quietly to himself, he didn’t think he’d ever seen the blonde get that flustered over anything before, and got up to shut the door. As he quietly pulled on his black jeans and red hoodie, he heard Sapnap mutter something that sounded oddly like ‘you’re fucking whipped, dude’, followed by a muffled groan of ‘shut up, you’re so dumb’ from Dream. 

When George finally emerged from his room, he was greeted by the sight of numerous banners hung up all over their apartment. Most of them read things like ‘happy birthday!’ or ‘24 today!’, although he did spot a few bearing the slogan ‘you’re old’, which he assumed were courtesy of Sapnap and chose to ignore. 

His grin widened further still when he approached the sitting room and saw copious amounts of blue balloons littering the floor, with a small pile of presents grouped by one end of the sofa. This was all already much more than he had expected, seeing as he told both of his friends that all he wanted for his birthday was to pick which takeout they got for dinner that night. 

Sapnap was lying on the floor in the corner, propped against the TV stand, and Dream was waiting eagerly at the other end of the couch. They both looked up and smiled back when they noticed George enter, obviously excited for him to see what they had got for him.

“I can’t believe you guys went out of your way to do all this,” George beamed, still gazing around the room. 

“Only for you, Gogy,” Dream said softly, leaning forward, hands in his lap, to get a better look at George unwrapping his presents. 

The walls had been adorned with a collection of photos they had taken since moving in together: George asleep in the backseat of the car on the way back from the airport, the word ‘IDIOT’ written on his forehead in bold black letters (by Sapnap of course); the three of them on the beach, Sapnap posing innocently for the camera with George and Dream sleeping next to each other on the sand behind him; the time that Dream had tried making a pizza from scratch, and ended up breaking their oven and nearly setting off the fire alarms (the burning smell had lingered for days after); multiple photos from when they had all gotten exceedingly drunk and had a karaoke night in their kitchen; as well as so many more. 

George smiled as he saw each one of them, reminiscing on all of the happy memories, before finally turning his attention to the modest heap of gifts beside him. 

He decides to open the ones from Sapnap first, and tears off the ribbon to find a new graphics card, along with a couple bottles of deodorant. 

“Oh, thank you Sapnap!” George exclaimed happily, turning the graphics card over to look at the specifications on the back of the box, “but, may I ask, why the deodorant?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You stink, dude.” 

George rolled his eyes at that, but walked over to Sapnap to give him a hug anyway. He then goes to pick up the box from Dream, but feels a hand on his as he begins to tug at the wrapping paper, preventing him from revealing the contents any further.

“Wait, open this first.” Dream said, smiling nervously, handing him a pale blue envelope that matched the hue of the balloons that were still bouncing lazily around the room. 

George took it from Dream, and peeled open the envelope with slightly trembling fingers. He pulled out the card from inside, and stared at it in awe. It was a beautiful drawing of his and Dream’s minecraft personas - in human proportions of course. 

The Dream in the drawing had his arms wrapped around George’s shoulders from behind, chin resting on top of George’s head. The George in the drawing was smiling contentedly, hands coming up across his chest to hold onto Dream’s own. They had on their typical outfits and accessories - the smiley mask and green hoodie, the blue sweater and clout goggles - aside from the fact that they both were also sporting party hats. 

Naturally, he had seen plenty of the fanart that had been made of him, but having this hand-drawn piece in his hands was slightly overwhelming. He flipped it over, and carefully read the writing on the back.

_ ‘To George, _

_ Happy birthday! My god, you’re so old now, you’ll be having to move into a care home soon enough, maybe there wasn’t much point in me and Sapnap inviting you to live here in the first place. _

_ All jokes aside, I hope you've enjoyed living with us so far, and you also liked the drawing on the front of the card. _

_ Hope you have an amazing day, _

_ Love From, _

_ Dream :)’ _

George looked up, his smile so evident that he was practically glowing with happiness. 

“Did you- Did you draw this?” he asked, looking at Dream with glittering eyes.

Dream had his head resting on both of his hands, and was evidently extremely nervous about his best friend’s reaction to the card that he had painstakingly drawn for him. He locked eyes with George and nodded slowly, and was immediately wrapped in a rib-crushing hug. 

George had practically tackled him down, wrapping his arms around Dream’s neck, torsos pressed together. 

“Dream, I never knew you could even draw, it’s beautiful, thank you,” he whispered into the other’s ear. They lay there for a few seconds, wrapped in each other’s embrace, until a gagging sound reached their ears. They both looked towards the source of the noise, reasonably confused.

“Get a room! For the love of god, I do  _ not  _ wanna see y'all getting busy on the couch.” Sapnap choked out, in between feigned, exaggerated retching noises. 

The other two looked back at one another, and upon realising the position they were in - with George practically lying on top of Dream - they began to hastily disentangle themselves. After a few moments of awkward contact, they were sitting back in their former positions, both of them slightly pink in the face, avoiding eye contact.

Sapnap looked between them with a knowing gaze, absentmindedly picking up one of the balloons and bouncing it rhythmically against his knee. He had known for a while now of his roommates’ feelings for one another, and had been there for both of them on many occasions when they ranted about how annoying it was to be in love with a ‘straight’ guy. He was also pretty sure that neither of them wanted to make the first move, which seemed to massively complicate the entire situation unnecessarily. 

“Aw, c’mon, you know I was kidding, although if you two really want some alone time I can always go to my room and put my earplugs in. I guess it is George’s birthday after all…” Sapnap trailed off suggestively. 

“SAPNAP-” Dream and George both started, embarrassed. The blush that had been fading off their cheeks came back readily, and they glanced at each other again, only to look away hurriedly.

“Chill, I was joking. Unless-” he was cut off by pointed glares from both parties, and decided it was best to drop his attempt at matchmaking - for now, anway. 

“George, did you even open your actual present from Dream?” Sapnap inquired, not-so-subtly trying to change the subject, for the sake of both the Brit and the Floridian’s dignity. 

“Oh, no, I didn’t,” George said quickly, seizing the change in topic like a lifeline. 

He hastily grabbed the box and began to slowly untie the ribbon, and eventually opened the box to see a huge tub of chocolate raisins, a new camera, and a black, oversized Dream merch hoodie. George immediately grinned and thanked Dream again, before expertly opening the sweets and scooping an enormous handful into his mouth and nearly choking.

“George-” Dream wheezed, doubling over at the sight of him. Sapnap took one glance at a teary-eyed George with his face full of chocolate raisins, and then at Dream, who was pounding the couch cushions with his fist and struggling to breathe because he was laughing so hard, and then he too dissolved into hysterics. 

Eventually, George had finally managed to swallow down all of the chocolate, and Dream and Sapnap were silent at last, aside for the occasional giggle that broke through the quiet. 

They sat there comfortably for a while, just talking to one another and cracking jokes, George not daring to have more than one more raisin at a time, before a high-pitched noise pierced the cosy atmosphere. 

“Is that… the fire alarm?” George said hesitantly, eyes wide with apprehension. 

“SHIT!” Dream yelled, springing to his feet, wrenching the door open and sprinting to the out of the room. George and Sapnap quickly followed him, and arrived in the kitchen to the sight of Dream wrapped in clouds of acrid gray smoke. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading, any comments/criticisms are greatly appreciated!
> 
> apologies again for the slow start to this fic, i promise more will happen in the next chapter (i already have plenty of cute moments planned for it :))
> 
> i'll try to update weekly, but due to school and homework and stuff it may take a little longer sometimes
> 
> anyways, i hope you enjoyed, have a great day!


End file.
